Korea is remarkable as the only country on earth where the Catholic faith emerged even before the arrival of missionaries. Forming an improvised community of believers, the first Korean Catholics desperately desired priests to say the Mass and administer the sacraments.

Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon (1821-1846) and Venerable Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop (1821-1861) were the first two native-born Korean men ordained as priests of the Catholic Church. Selected as boys as suitable candidates for seminary, both Andrew Kim and Thomas Choe undertook the perilous journey to Macao where they spent several years under the tutelage of French missionary priests.

Returning to Korea, where Catholicism had been outlawed by the Joseon court, Andrew would be apprehended by the police, tried, and executed. His martyrdom in 1846 would eventually lead to his canonization as a saint in 1984. Thomas would also re-enter Korea where he would minister tirelessly as a covert missionary priest for the rest of his life. He would perish of sickness and exhaustion after nearly 12 years serving the scattered Korean faithful, continually on the run from the police and their informers.

Both Thomas Choe and St. Andrew Kim produced a fascinating corpus of letters and other writings, chronicling their travels, trials, and sufferings, along with those of many other Korean Catholics. Published together in this volume, these works offer a fascinating glimpse into the eventful lives of these two heroic priests. They are also the primary sources for wonderful biographies of dozens of Korean saints, martyrs, and confessors, containing anecdotes about their lives and deaths found nowhere else.

Martyr of Blood, Martyr of Sweat tells the story of the early Korean Church through the eyes of two of its most noteworthy heroes. Trekking across frozen rivers, sailing in fragile ships over storm-tossed seas, enduring heartbreaking betrayals and under constant threat of death, Saint Andrew Kim and Thomas Choe are revealed be men of unbelievable fortitude and will serve as powerful witnesses and examples for modern readers.